Mariner's Compass (photo link)

That is just *amazing*!! I love the way such simple colours can make a quilt sing :-D

how about waves with a few boats scattered? just thinking out loud of stuff I wouldn't even try to do as I'm not so good at the quilting bit LOL

That is awesome!! BJ

That is really lovely, Rose. How are you going to 'finish' it, that will make it the larger size - and what colour(s)? . In message , blackrosequilts writes

That is a super compass! It is lovely. Linda in Tx

Wow! That's gorgeous, Rose! Those blues in the compass just sparkle against the black. :) Let us know how you like the Miracle Chalk, please. What sort of quilting do you plan to do?

Lovely! I'd probably trim those puffy threads at the top first though :-)

marcella

Oh my, I bow and grovel in the face of your ability... That's gorgeous!! One day... maybe after having cured the common cold and written the Great American Novel, will I have the courage and experience to tackle all those pointy bits, funky angles and curves. Amazing. Debi

WoW! I like it. The pooch in the photo had me do a double take. The way the picture is cropped I thought it was a cute small pig. LOL

I want to make one of those quilts for my DB who recently bought a 31' sailboat. What book did you use? Any reference would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for sharing your work.

W-O-W....that's amazing! It's HUGE...land gorgeous! And what a cute pooch in for foreground, too :)

-Irene

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

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Gosh Rose that is really stunning. Those blues are beautiful on the black!!

My husband's hair is a lost cause. It has a life of its own and occasinally tries to bite.

Ack, I phrased it poorly. The compass itself is 48" across. I appliqued it onto a 54" square, then added 6" (unfinished) border strips. So the top is currently 65" square and will probably finish up a bit smaller when quilted.

I started with _Mariner's Compass Quilts, New Directions_ by Judy Mathieson. She goes through all the steps of drafting a pattern and provides a number to start with.

Anybody who can make a compass without using paper-piecing or foundation piecing is a quilting goddess! With paper or foundation, making the wedges (this one had 8 wedges) is easy. Sewing them together and getting the compass to lie flat is a bit more challenging but patience gets it done.

Last time I made a compass quilt was a couple years ago, I made twelve

General tips: Press seams open. Trim dog-ears square. Pin from the center out. Sew to the center point but never past it. Match the center points when pinning wedges together. It's light-years easier to adjust the outer edge than the center. Seams going through the center point must be straight. If they're not, the compass will not lie flat.

Good luck -- and don't do too many of them. Once you get the hang of them, they're boring as heck.

One of my first-ever quilts was a Mariner;s Compass...didn't know it was hard to do! Made it for my BIL who used to be in the Merchant Marines and then captain of an oil tanker. I LOVED how the colors all worked together...especially the orange I had for the background. Like I said

- never knew that they were supposed to be difficult to make, so just went ahead and did it - I also used Judy Mathieson's book.

Sue > Ceridwen wrote:

Piggybacking

Carole - check out EQ. There are a lot of compass designs there and you can always draw your own too.